Dance | Anituan |
Meaning | Séance |
Dance Culture | Highland Tribal Community |
Place of Origin | Pampanga and Zambales |
Ethnolinguistic Group | Aetas |
Classification | Healing Ritual |
Background / Content | The Aeta Shaman (Mag-Anito) healers of Pampanga and Zambales cover sick members of the community with a red cloth which symbolizes sickness, in the anituan ritual. They entice the spirits who caused the sickness to abandon the body of the afflicted with food, gifts of beads or threats of bodily harm. The final act of the ritual is when the red cloth gets pulled over their heads and the Mag-anito who supposedly absorbs the sickness falls to the ground in a trance and is unconscious. |